Talk About

Opening Spiel: "Let's talk...whether the subject is (Ace of Spades), (Man-Eating
Fish), or (Card Sharks)*, it's something you'll hear about when we all play
Talk About! And here's the man who has everybody talking, Wayne Cox!" *The
idea here was to have the third example subject be a "punny" composite of the
first two, as illustrated above by your webmaster. :-)

Premise: Two teams competed in a word communication game for the fast-talking
set.

RULES:

The game is played between two 2-member teams (friends,
spouses, relatives, etc.) and begins w/the champions being asked to choose one
of two subjects; after doing so, the opposing team goes to their isolation corner
and equips themselves w/bulky (1970s-type) music-blasting headphones to completely
block out the sounds of all onstage action.
One member of the champion team is chosen to talk first; at Wayne's command,
s/he is given 20 seconds to "talk about (chosen subject)" and say as much as possible
in an attempt to uncover as many of 10 pre-selected words off a list as possible, w/1
point going into the pot for each word revealed (credit is given for forms of a word, so
if [for example] "singer" appeared on the list, saying "sing", "singing", etc. would be
acceptable). Once time has expired, if necessary, his/her partner is then given 20 seconds
to talk about that same subject and try to uncover some/all of the remaining words.
If one or both members of the team uncover all 10 words, they automatically
win the maximum 10 points, plus a $500 bonus. Otherwise, their opponents are called
back from isolation and shown whatever words the first team didn't say; they are then
given 5 seconds to guess the subject, and if correct, they steal the pot, otherwise it goes
to the first team.
Play is then reversed, w/the opposing team doing the talking and the
first team going into isolation before attempting to steal. The game continues
in this manner until one team scores 15 or more points; they win the game and go
on to the bonus round.

THE BONUS ROUND:

After choosing one of 2 offered bonus prizes that they'd like to try for,
one member of the winning team is selected to play first, while the other one goes
into the onstage isolation booth. As in the maingame, the team chooses one of two
subjects to "talk about", and the first player is given 20 seconds to do so.
Each word uncovered is worth $100 apiece, and if the first player successfully
names all 10 words, the team automatically wins the top payoff of $2,000 plus their
chosen bonus prize. If this is not accomplished (which was usually the case), the
first player then has a decision to make: S/he can either keep the money just
earned, or risk it and try to double the pot.
If the first player elects to risk the money, his/her partner is brought back onstage,
and in a time limit of 1 second for each word named in the first part (ex: if the first
player revealed 6 words, his/her partner would have 6 seconds to talk), must say any one
of the remaining words. If successful, they win double the money earned in the first part
and their bonus prize; otherwise, they win nothing.

Teams on "Talk About" were allowed to compete until they were defeated or
won 5 games, whichever came first; the 5th and final matchup was known as the
"Grand Game", and if the champions emerged victorious, they won the "Grand Game
Jackpot", a prize package worth between $5,000-$6,000.
NOTES:

"Talk About" was created and co-produced by Mark-Maxwell Smith, a veteran game show
producer in both the US and Canada.

In most American markets, the show aired as part of a syndicated GS block
that included "Jackpot" with Geoff Edwards and "The Last Word", another
Canadian-based entry hosted by Wink Martindale.

The show began exclusively as a Canadian entry in 1988, before being exported
to the US for the following season.

During that first season, a number of all-star "Celebrity Talk About" primetime shows
featuring Canadian personalities playing for charity, were done. Rules remained the same,
except rather than playing to 15 points, the maingame was played to a time limit, with the
team ahead when time expired going on to play the bonus round, and no merchandise prizes
were offered. This gimmick was only tried once the following season...

...when a number of American stations carrying the show aired a celebrity
episode as a "sneak preview" on the evening of Sep. 15, 1989 (3 days before the
"official" US premiere), which featured Geoff Edwards and Steve Skrovan
competing against Marc Summers and Scott Nemes (ironically, all except Nemes
have hosted a game show).

A home game was released by Pressman in 1989 and also given as a parting gift to
losing contestants on the show.

Prior to "Talk About", host Wayne Cox had emceed another Canadian-exported
game show, "2nd Honeymoon", which aired on CBN Cable in 1987-88. He later went
on to host the long-running (1991-98) Canadian charades game "Acting Crazy" and
is now a weatherman for Vancouver's BCTV.

Although the last first-run episode (which saw Wayne bringing the entire staff onstage
at the end to say goodbye) aired in March of 1990, a number of stations continued to show reruns until September; these were from the
first (Canadian-only) season.

Three years after its cancellation, USA aired reruns of "Talk About" as part
of its afternoon lineup for the last half of 1993.

Announcer Dean Hill has been a well-known Vancouver radio personality since the mid-70s and currently serves as half the midday team of "Dean and Hatch" on CFMI-FM (Rock 101).